Problem with my advisor.

[HermoineG]

Hi guys,

 

I have a problem and I was wondering if any of you guys can offer any suggestions. So I got into my dream school for MA Research-oriented program. I have this most amazing and kind advisor. She is very new into the department - assistant prof. This is her second year here.

 

I was really hoping to get a lot of research experience and its almost end of my semester and mostly I'm just helping her very little bit with some administrative work. It mostly involves writing some scripts for interviews and stuff. Not much anything else. Her work is more quantitative and so there are not any experiments where I can get some hands on experience. I always tell her -I'm ready to do more. I want to do more. She says- yes alright! Lets get started and then I just end up doing work which anybody else can do. What do I do? How do I tell her I want some good research experience. I feel totally hopeless when I see my classmates running experiments and writing some cool stuff. And I'm stuck!

 

I really like my advisor but I feel as if I'm not getting what I came for. Am I supposed to start my own research project and then ask her for help? What should I do to get involved?? Any suggestions would help.

[ilovelab]

Honestly? Just tell her what you wrote here. You know her work is more quantitative based but you would like to do experiments. Ask her if you were to come up with experiments/a project to do (it doesn't have to be big) would she be willing to let you do it.

[HermoineG]

Honestly? Just tell her what you wrote here. You know her work is more quantitative based but you would like to do experiments. Ask her if you were to come up with experiments/a project to do (it doesn't have to be big) would she be willing to let you do it.

 

 

Thanks ilovelab! I will think of a project that I can start and ask her if she can help me with it.

 

I always thought that advisor's assign you to their existing projects (my classmates have been assigned). She is taking my help on one of her projects but I feel its not enough and doesnt give me a lot of desired experience.

[spunky]

wouldn't it be possible for you to start wandering around other people's labs/projects, see if something interests you and jump in?

 

that's what i did and my adivsor was oblivious to it until work i did in another lab became an intrinsic part of my thesis. it was more like "hey, Dr. X! i see Dr. Y is doing this awesome stuff and she gave me the OK to hang around her lab.. just giving you the headz up!"

[psych face]

wouldn't it be possible for you to start wandering around other people's labs/projects, see if something interests you and jump in?

 

that's what i did and my adivsor was oblivious to it until work i did in another lab became an intrinsic part of my thesis. it was more like "hey, Dr. X! i see Dr. Y is doing this awesome stuff and she gave me the OK to hang around her lab.. just giving you the headz up!"

 

This is sort of what I was going to say. The professors at my school don't seem to mind having people working/volunteering in more than one lab. I wouldn't be afraid to just wander in and, what I call "cheat on" your mentor, and "see other people" if you know what I'm saying. Where there are a lot of research labs in a tight knit department, I've noticed this is pretty common anyway.